Now having the dubious pleasure of living in a Multi Storey building, experience tells me that there is never a scenario where the lift can always be at your floor, turbo or not.

So whats the script here, am losing sleep over it.
In "The Alternative Factor" Lazarus strops off the Bridge after a tete a tete with James T, within less than two seconds a security dude is dispatched to follow him.

Walks to door...........swoosh.........door opens, viola !
Lazarus is not in the lift, hes already gone.
Fuckin lift must go at Warp Speed for this to occur
So how come ?

Remember that turbolifts do not move on cables or rails like today's lifts. They are capable of overtaking, just like taxi cabs today. This means that a lift cab held in readiness near the bridge does not block other lift cabs from accessing the bridge. Not if there's a "parking lot" in the turboshaft at or near bridge level.

Now note that the turbolift station in TOS is not at the back of the bridge, opposite the viewscreen and behind Kirk's back. It's a bit off to the side. In TOS movies, there are multiple lifts, and they change location at each refit, without affecting the exterior looks of the ship at all.

Now, it could well be assumed that there is a central turboshaft in Kirk's ship, right at ship centerline, climbing all the way to the bridge. And then there's a little side branch that ends at the door... Perfect for the "taxi rank" system where multiple cabs are waiting, and one pulls to the doors whenever somebody needs a ride down while another remains waiting.

In the movies, there are probably two side-by-side vertical shafts, just as seen at the Recreation Deck (a facility that would have to be located at ship centerline, close to saucer axis, because there's no room for it elsewhere). And then these convenient side branches to serve the two turbolift stations at the bridge, the length of the branches being easily modifiable.

In both cases, we would have to assume that the bridge is not quite flush with the top of the ship, but lies a bit lower down, in order for the side branches to exist. But we have to assume that in any case in the movies, because the sets from the later movies really wouldn't fit inside otherwise. And it makes good sense in ST:TMP as well: we notice that when Spock boards the ship through a docking port at the very top of the ship, he then needs to enter a turbolift in order to access the bridge, suggesting the two are at different heights.

I like the idea that the huge tube behind the bridge holds empty cars. When one slides down, another locks into place so there's always an empty car. That would reconcile the size of the thing with the bridge on the Enterprise model and also keep the bridge facing front instead of to the side.

Lack of lifts is not what's causing delays in today's skyscraper elevator systems. It's lack of shafts or "lanes" for the lifts. Today, the only way to have eight lifts serve a floor is to have eight shafts (*). But if the lifts could overtake, then it would suffice to have just two shafts, like a two-lane road: eight (or more) lifts could then zip up one lane, down another, and swerve to the opposite line if a stopped lift at some floor blocked the way up or down.

Now, even two shafts take up a lot of space. So the starship would probably just have one shaft, and then little side alcoves for overtaking - much like the railway network typically only has a single rail for long stretches, plus side rails at suitable intervals so that trains going in opposite directions can pass.

Timo Saloniemi

(*) Okay, there's another way, sort of. The situation with modern skyscrapers is actually so desperate that there are plans of stringing up several lift cabs from the same cable, atop each other, so that when people board at Level 8, others can disembark at Level 7. Current technology cannot create cable-free, sidestepping lifts yet, so vertical stacking of some sort or another is better than nothing.

... there are plans of stringing up several lift cabs from the same cable, atop each other, so that when people board at Level 8, others can disembark at Level 7. Current technology cannot create cable-free, sidestepping lifts yet, so vertical stacking of some sort or another is better than nothing.

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So what happens if somebody gets on at the 8th floor and wants off at the first floor? If there's a car stacked underneath it (and for the sake of argument, there's no basement/parkade level), how do the occupants get to the first floor? Get out and walk down the stairs?

I remember reading somewhere that an idea was (at least) the senior officers had a turbolift car "following" them where ever they went, so they'd always have a car nearby and wouldn't have to wait. Not always the "same" car, but always a car nearby. It seems to be plausible, since the captain, first officer, or doctor for instance should never be delayed anywhere they go.

Right before the first round of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" in The Naked Time, Kirk had to wait for an elevator, which he ordered Uhura to expedite. From http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/7.htm:

Right before the first round of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" in The Naked Time, Kirk had to wait for an elevator, which he ordered Uhura to expedite. From http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/7.htm:

KIRK: Clear that tube, will you?
UHURA: Yes, sir.

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Wasnt that because Reilly had fucked with all the ships systems from his console in Engineering ?

Right before the first round of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" in The Naked Time, Kirk had to wait for an elevator, which he ordered Uhura to expedite. From http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/7.htm:

KIRK: Clear that tube, will you?
UHURA: Yes, sir.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Wasnt that because Reilly had fucked with all the ships systems from his console in Engineering ?

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Unclear, but I never thought so. I read Kirk's reaction (of a frustrated faux pound on the doors) as that the wait was really bad timing. Uhura didn't have any trouble clearing the rube; I'd expect her to have a harder time if Riley had actually messed something up (compare with the trouble she has getting him off the intercom later). But who knows? You could imagine that Riley did just randomize the elevators and then went on to other mischief.

Another possibility is that there is a circular turbo lift shaft surrounding the bridge, between the consoles and outer dome, and when one turbo lift exits, it just does a loop around the bridge and comes back to the shaft? This would explain why the T/L station on the bridge is offset from the main tube visible from the outside, so as to make the way clear for the other(s) access the shaft? And of course, there could be more than one or two doing the merry-go-round at any given time? Of course, there’s really not enough space for this kind of set up, if the dimensions of the ship are to be taken literally, but who knows?

It makes sense that there would be a select number of locations on the ship that got priority for lift access, the bridge definitely would be one of those places. However given the design of the bridge area, a mini car park for lifts would fix better directly below the bridge on deck two.

Places like sickbay, security, engineering, would likely have a small number of lifts just standing by. Places like the crew living quarters and the lower cargo holds not so likely.

MCCOY: He'll have to be committed to a total rehabilitation centre. Right now he's under sedation and heavy restraints.
SPOCK: I would say his multitronic unit is in approximately the same condition.
KIRK: That's exactly the situation I was hoping for when I forced the M-5 to realise it had committed murder.
(The group walk out of the medical bay to McCoy's office.)
KIRK: Daystrom felt such an act was against the laws of God and man. The computer that carried his engrams also believed it.
SPOCK: Captain, why did you feel the attacking ships would not fire when they saw the Enterprise apparently vulnerable? Logically, that is the sort of trap M-5 should have set.
KIRK: I wasn't sure. Any other commander would have simply followed orders and destroyed us, but I knew Bob Wesley.
(They walk out into the)

Yup, the turbolift is across the corridor (at least in some episodes), in both TOS, TFS and TNG. One wonders why there isn't a lift even closer to the sickbay - quarantine is a concern in several episodes...

One also wonders why the lift diameter doesn't appear to cater for the horizontal carrying of a stretcher patient! It's a matter of just a few inches, but that just makes it all the more annoying, especially when we see those boxy TNG hover-stretchers that clearly cannot be tilted.